FROZEN OUT: Princeton University women’s hockey player Jaimie McDonell heads up the ice in recent action. Last Saturday at Minnesota in the NCAA quarterfinals, senior star McDonell scored a goal 29 seconds into the contest to give the Tigers a 1-0 lead. The third-seeded and defending national champion Golden Gophers responded with six unanswered goals over the next two periods on the way to a 6-2 victory and a spot in the Frozen 4. The defeat left the Tigers with a final record of 22-9-2 as they set a program record for most wins in a season. (Photo by Frank Wojciechowski)

Trailing 6-1 at Minnesota with just seconds left in the NCAA quarterfinals last Saturday, the Princeton University women’s hockey team could have just skated out the game.

Instead, the Tigers kept battling, scoring a goal with three seconds left to make it a 6-2 finale before a crowd of 2,468 at Ridder Arena.

Princeton head coach Jeff Kampersal wasn’t surprised to see his team tack on the late tally.

“Karen (MacDonald), who is an unbelievable team leader, doesn’t play much and that was her first shift; she got the puck out on the blue line and we thought she scored for the first time,” said Kampersal.

“It went off Molly Contini’s hand so we were going nuts. They never quit until the final buzzer and that goal was just another indication of that.”

Princeton realized it was running into a buzz-saw in third-seeded and defending national champion Minnesota, who brought a 32-4-1 record into the contest.

“We knew what Minnesota was going to throw at us but it is really hard to prepare for their speed and skill,” said Kampersal.

“They are a really, really solid team. They are really well coached, they are defending champs.”

Princeton fired the opening salvo at Minnesota as senior star forward Jaimie McDonell scored a goal 29 seconds into the contest to give the Tigers a 1-0 lead.

“Jaimie got that opening goal; all year we prepared to win the opening face-off and try to get the puck deep and just try to get the momentum of the game going in our direction early,” said Kampersal. “We were able to do that, which was exciting.”

The Tigers, however, were not able to stop Minnesota over the rest of the period as the Golden Gophers scored three unanswered goals to take a 3-1 lead and seize control of the contest. “We gave up a power play goal,” said Kampersal.

“We didn’t want to take any penalties against them because their power play was 45 percent or something. We prepared against it all week but the kids still took too many. We should never have given up a shorthanded goal and then they scored on a power play rush and they should have never had one on that either so it was kind of a bummer.”

It was more of the same in the second period as the Tigers and senior goalie Kimberly Newell valiantly held the fort for more than 14 minutes only to see Minnesota scored three straight goals in a span of 2:38 to put the game out of reach.

“The opportunities that they had, they scored on,” lamented Kampersal. “We had like 27 shots, which is a good number for us, but we just couldn’t take advantage of opportunities.”

Over the course of the winter, Princeton generally made the most of its opportunities, posting a final record of 22-9-2 and setting a program record for most wins in a season as it made its first NCAA appearance since 2006.

“Overall, it was great,” asserted Kampersal. “I think in the past, I had teams with expectations and pressured them too much. So just focusing on every day and trying to be good put us in a good spot mentally. I thought we did improve mental toughness. In game two of the ECAC Hockey series with St. Lawrence, going down 2-0 and being already down a game, to battle back and win that game was huge. Our girls love to compete; they live the core values that we have. We got big wins and to get to the NCAA tournament is a huge accomplishment.”

In Kampersal’s view, his senior class of goalie Newell, forwards McDonell, Cristin Shanahan, and Maddie Peake along with defenseman MacDonald, deserves a huge share of the credit for the team’s winning approach.

“From when they came in freshman year and where they left the program, the culture is in the best place it has ever been,” said Kampersal.

“The conditioning of the players is the best it has ever been. Getting the most wins is awesome but even better than that was that the process to get that point is way better than it has ever been. They can be proud of it. They just filled whatever role they were asked to play, they were great leaders and they left the program in a better place so it is just a good group.”

With the Tigers bringing back a good group of players including junior stars Kelsey Koelzer, Molly Contini, Cassidy Tucker, Morgan Sly, Fiona McKenna, and Molly Strabley along with sophomores Kiersten Falck and Emily Achterkirch and freshmen Karlie Lund, Stephanie Sucharda, and Kimiko Marinacci, the program is in an excellent place.

“We will be senior heavy which is good so we will have a lot of experience,” said Kampersal.

“We have firepower coming back. We have an awesome class coming in, so we are really excited.”